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Football Blog – Justin Hawkins

The screaming rocker is back with his new band…

Been wondering what former The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has been doing? Well stop wondering, ‘cos we can tell you. He’s been forming a new band, called Hot Leg. And as you can see from the image, he’s not exactly toning it down. So we had a word with him about his new band, Steve Tyler and Ruel Fox. And if that doesn’t entice you to read nothing will…
Hi Justin, how is it all going?

Very well thanks. Not too bad. The single’s out now, so we had a launch day, I’ve been in stores, doing interviews, radio, talking to yourself.

How is the new band?

It’s going really well, just trying to work out what the next single will be really. We’re not gigging till February, we’ve got a big tour then, but the album comes out at the beginning of February so after the album comes out you can go out because people know the songs and stuff.

What’s been your best ever gig?

Doing Reading, both times, was really cool. Internationally I think my favourite gig ever was probably when we played in Italy on my birthday in 2006 and the crowd were just unbelievable.

How different is it playing abroad?

It depends where you go really and it depends how the record has gone at the place you go. Italy was fantastic for us and I think that’s because the record company there really, really tried and really made the effort to give us a break. Also you could say the same about America and Canada, and Australia was a good laugh, but I think that’s just because Australian people know how to have a good time!

How about your worst gigs?

Some of the support slots we’ve done in this country have been really terrible! But at the same time festival slots have gone really well for us. There’s good and bad in every country I think, in this country more than others!

Any weird fan stories?

All our fans are just geniuses and have impeccable taste in music!

Right. Ever been star struck?

I was amazed when I met Steven Tyler, he has been my hero for the last seventeen years and we got to meet him and he turned out to be really, really nice. He looked awesome and was really cool, a real inspiration.

Have you met any annoying celebrities?

I don’t know any annoying celebrities.

We see diplomacy is the name of the game today then. On to football then, who’s your team?

I used to go and see Norwich play a lot when I was a kid during the late eighties, early nineties. Thef Robert Fleck, Robert Rosario, Ruel Fox years, when we were playing really good football and just being competitive. The last time I saw them play was against Chelsea, in the Premier League a few years ago. It didn’t go well!

Did it put you off then?

No, I just haven’t had time to follow it properly, I used to love going with my dad and watching them. I’m getting Sky plumbed in to my house, so I should be able to follow it a bit more closely, but I’ve been out of the loop quite a bit really. I always hear bad things!
Yeah it’s not gone too well recently. Though they did beat Ipswich the other week…

The problem I remember was that they had all these fantastic players and they just became a selling club, and I think we’re still picking up the pieces from that really. At least they’re holding on to people now which is something.

How about playing then? We’ve seen you in a few celebrity tournaments…

I’ve played in a few of them. We took a skeleton squad to St James’ Park and played at Newcastle’s ground, we got to the quarter-finals in that one. We had one substitute, a guy from Hollyoaks, who took one look at us and decided he didn’t want to be on our team!

How do Hollyoaks people always end up at these things?

I don’t know, especially as it was just for the music industry! But I think we actually beat the team he ended up joining so that was cool! That was like 2003 early days of The Darkness. Then the next year we took a really strong squad, we went to Goodison Park, we were coached by Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler and we had John Aldridge in our team as our ringer! We ended up winning the whole tournament! I actually won the player of the tournament trophy but I didn’t feel as though I deserved it and I gave it to Dougie Bruce who was another ringer who worked at our publishers but he also used to play for Rangers! But everyone in the squad played and scored so it was a good day. We’ve also played at Millwall and Birmingham, so my football career spans four major stadiums and only ended in success once!
You did a World Cup song for England in 2006. Ever fancy doing another with Hot Leg?

Yeah I might do, I’m up for doing an Olympics song as well. Something like “the Olympics is coming home”, not to Greece!
Finally, what advice can you give us on how best to wear a catsuit?

My advice would be don’t make too much of a big deal of it really. Try and wear it around the house, and get used to it. You’ll find in time that it’s the superior garment and there is really no need for any other types of clothing in your wardrobe. Other pieces of clothing will simply become cumbersome and unnecessary. I see it as a singing overall really, so if you’re going to do some singing, put your overalls on!
What about using talcum powder?

No you just have to squeeze in, just don’t try and do it when sweaty would be my advice, have a dry body, there’s no reason talc would help.

The new single, ‘I’ve Met Jesus’, is out now. The band’s debut album, ‘Red Light Fever’ is released 9th February 2009.